LIBYAN LEADER HONOURED FOR HIS PART IN OUR WOES -
WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?
- A RUDDERLESS AND LEADERLESS COUNTRY WITHOUT A SOUL?
- WHERE IS THE SENSE OF PRIDE AND PATRIOTISM OF THE SIERRA LEONEAN?

Dateline - 1st January 2009 - The first day in the year, a public holiday that is widely celebrated in Sierra Leone by Sierra Leoneans of all faiths. A time when Sierra Leoneans celebrate and in typical fashion, despite all the odds, despite all the hardship would be heard singing the good old refrain - "Happy New Year mi nor....Tell God tenki.....a true celebration and a thanksgiving to the Good Lord for His mercies.

It was on this day, five days to the 10th anniversary of the January 6, 1999 rebel invasion that claimed more than 5,000 lives in the most horrific manner that the peoples' representatives, Parliamentarians took upon themselves to convene a SPECIAL SESSION OF THE HOUSE for the sole purpose of honouring Libyan Leader Colonel Khaddafi by making him an honorary MP of our very own Parliament!!! A man who has been linked to the troubles that hit the mother country that has claimed thousands of lives, displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands of survivors traumatised still trying to cope with the trauma of their ordeal!!!

Still trying to cope with the aftermath of chopped-off limbs, coping with gang-rapes, coping with dispossession, coping with the loss of loved ones.

It is against this background that the Parliament of Sierra Leone - the seat of the people's representatives without consulting their constituencies assembled their greedy, unpatriotic and self-serving selves to honour a man whose hand could be found in our troubles - from the very beginning.

It was the APC under Siaka Stevens that decided that Libya should leave after it became apparent that Colonel Khaddafi was involved in the training of "dissidents" in his country and as everyone now knows was the place that nurtured the likes of Charles Taylor of Liberia and Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso, two countries that provided the conduit for weapons and materiel meant for the killing fields of the mother country, Sierra Leone.

Any wonder therefore why the first overseas assignment of Ernest Bai Koroma was to spend a night in Burkina Faso as guest of Blaise Campaore?

What is most disheartening about it all, what is the unkindest cut of all was that this singular act of gross betrayal was not perpetuated by the APC alone, but by all the Parliamentarians who should have been representing the people of Sierra Leone!!!

By this act, these selfish, greedy and self-serving people calling themselves the peoples' representatives, without consulting their constituents have committed the most odious of mass deceptions, thieving and dishonesty on a national scale for which they should go back to the people to seek a fresh mandate.

They should seek a fresh mandate because the people never asked them to make Colonel Khaddafi an honorary MP of Sierra Leone's House of Representatives!!!

The Sierra Herald was appalled to learn that President Ernest Bai Koroma who was grinning from ear to ear and displaying a mutant of sycophancy never before witnessed in any tale of "lay-bellehism" and "yelibalism" was a figure of disgust if not mirth as he took out his begging bowl at every opportunity.

Colonel Khaddafi while in Sierra Leone practically took over the reins of government going where he so decides, doing things the government was not aware of and in short having the rest of what passes for a government running after the Libyan leader wherever he goes and whenever he surfaces. In fact, the government was not in control of Colonel Khaddafi's visit. The Colonel was in charge of the territory of Sierra Leone the moment he landed in a country manned by beggars with no shame.

And always on cue would President Koroma and his ministers present a number of requests ranging from "Parliament being the least resourced in West Africa" to "tractors, my leader we need more tractors".

The disgusting behaviour of the government officials and Parliamentarians could be summed up in a line in Umaru Fofana's report for the BBC in which he quoted one minister as saying that the arrival of Khaddafi was like "a millionaire visiting the house of a poor man" or words to that effect. Imagine that!!!!!

So that was it.

These mean people of no shame, no pride, no-dignity saw in this visit an opportunity to beg, beg, beg and crawl, crawl and crawl competing as to who would go down the lowest at the feet of Colonel Khaddafi because they believed that they could milk the Libyan leader.

And all the while, the victims and all Sierra Leoneans affected by the war were left to their devices, not worth any explanation as to why their New Year's Day celebrations should be so rudely interrupted.

And the MP's? - the Sierra Herald understands that these people of a shameless disposition, greedy to the core and bent on making money from whatever source were in the House up to 8pm that New Year's night in their desperate bid to make a Sierra Leonean citizen out of Colonel Khaddafi. And not only that but to make him an honorary MP whose constituency no doubt takes in the government and territory of Sierra Leone!!!!

And the man was not even asked to make a public apology for his hand in our troubles.

Yes, the West could be warming up to Khaddafi, but after making sure that he renounces terrorism and he pays for Lockerbie and other acts of terrorism. Read this.

What a disgrace!!!

What a betrayal of trust!!!!

What a demonstration of ungratefulness and lack of appreciation!!!

What a lack of sensitivity to the plight of the war victims!!!!!